


Give Me a Reason

by the_only_education_worth_having



Series: Requested Fics [42]
Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: Angst, Arguing, Board Certification, Degloving, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Holding Hands, Pac North, Requested, Requested fic, Season 8, Seattle Grace, Seattle Grace/Mercy West, Surgery, admittance of feelings, changed timeline, laughing, not canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:34:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23351770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_only_education_worth_having/pseuds/the_only_education_worth_having
Summary: Jackson has to make a decision.
Relationships: Jackson Avery/April Kepner, Jackson Avery/Reader, Jackson Avery/You
Series: Requested Fics [42]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/937128
Kudos: 16





	Give Me a Reason

**Author's Note:**

> REQUEST - okay okay okay i LOVE your works can i request a greys anatomy where the reader is best friends with jackson and she knows about jackson and april and she's really jealous and so she avoids him until he confronts her and she confesses her feelings and he confesses too? this would happen like around the ennd of season 8/start of season 9 thank youuuuuu

‘So have you got all your offers in yet?’ Jackson said leaning on the counter next to where Y/N was charting.   
‘Yep,’ she said curtly as she snapped the chart shut and passed it to the nurse who was sitting behind the desk, ‘I’ve written Mr Gaunt up for some IV fluids he looks a little dry.’  
‘Thanks, Dr Y/L/N,’ the nurse said, checking the prescription. Y/N nodded at her and then walked off down the hall with Jackson at her heels.  
‘You okay?’ he said as she walked ahead of him speedily as if she was trying to lose him.  
‘Fine.’  
‘Oh, okay,’ Jackson said, ‘so come on. Your offers, what are you going to do?’  
‘Haven’t decided yet,’ she said with an edge. They had reached the end of the corridor now and Y/N pushed the elevator button and tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for the light above it to change to their floor.  
‘Oh,’ Jackson said, ‘I thought you were set on staying here?’   
‘Yeah well like I said, I haven’t decided yet,’ Y/N said as she stepped through the now open doors of the elevator. As she did Jackson looked down at his beeper which was buzzing from where it was placed on his hip.   
‘I gotta go,’ he said, pretending not to notice Y/N’s indifference, ‘see you in the cafeteria later?’ The elevator doors shut before Y/N said anything.

Jackson made his way to the pit where he helped Hunt with multiple traumas had just come in from a major accident. Jackson spent most of the morning helping with a degloving accident with Mark until his attending was happy for the patient to have a moment to recuperate before they prepped and took him to surgery later that afternoon. Jackson made his way to the locker room and grabbed some cash before he headed down to the cafeteria. It was full though he could see no one he wanted to sit with. He and Y/N always tried to get down there at the same time every day as their schedules never seemed to overlap much since he joined Mark Sloan’s service. He grabbed some lunch and sat down at an empty table before pulling out of his phone and scrolling through his prospective offers for attending positions at various hospitals. He couldn’t deny that he loved being at Seattle Grace/Mercy West but there was just something appealing about the offer from Tulane. Jackson Avery, Head of Plastics at Tulane had a nice ring to it. He would never be head of plastics here. Mark had too much of a tie to Seattle so would never step down and so he would be stuck with being an attending instead. Though he would miss his friends so much. They were like his second family now. Y/N was his best friend, he didn’t know what he’d do without her. That’s why he wanted to know where she was off to. He knew she also had an offer from Tulane and that would definitely be an added bonus to the offer he already had. 

‘Hey,’ said a voice from the other side of the table, ‘Mind if I sit here?’   
‘Oh..erm, no of course not,’ Jackson said as April sat down opposite him with her lunch tray.   
‘Meredith said she was coming down soon,’ April said trying to deflect the awkwardness that had lingered since they had slept together away, ‘she’s just been on a really interesting case.’   
‘Yeah?’ Jackson said, chewing with his mouth open making her grimace, ‘I’ve been working on a degloving all morning.’   
Though any normal person wouldn’t want to speak about a gruesome flesh wound over food April gushed and wanted to know everything. They chatted amiably and Jackson was mid explaining how he was going to operate later when he noticed a figure standing with a tray behind April looking at them curiously it was Y/N. He waved at her but she didn’t come any closer instead she stalked off across the cafeteria and out of sight. 

‘What’s up with her?’ April said, watching where Jackson’s eyes trailed.   
‘I don’t know,’ Jackson said.   
‘Aren’t you like her best friend? I thought you two knew everything about each other,’ April scoffed.   
‘You’re right,’ Jackson said, ‘see you later.’ 

Before April could protest Jackson stood and picked up his tray as he walked off and dumped it in the trash. He decided he’d scout out the hospital until he found her. He hunted every floor without hope until he found her eating her lunch in the tunnels under the hospital where all the old beds were stored. 

‘Hey,’ he said sliding onto the bed and sitting beside her. She made an audible sigh as he did, ‘so you’re not even going to speak to me now?’   
‘I never said I wasn’t speaking to you,’ she said.   
‘Isn’t that kinda the point?’   
‘Whatever,’ she said biting into her apple.   
‘Is it boards?’   
‘No, why would I be bothered about them? I aced them.’   
‘Well, you’ve been weird since then. You’ve barely spoken to anyone since we all got back.’  
‘Yeah, well maybe I just don’t feel like it,’ she said, ‘besides not like you’re gonna be here much longer anyway why would you bother about that?’   
‘Is that what this is about? You think I’m going to leave,’ he said as she scooted off of the bed and deposited her trash in the gigantic waste bin a way up the corridor.   
‘Well, aren’t you?’ she said coolly.   
‘I haven’t decided yet,’ he said echoing her curtness from before. 

‘Well, you better do. Can’t have April hanging on too long,’ she said turning and walking off. Jackson was hot on her tail though and grabbed her by the elbow spinning her around.   
‘What are you talking about?’ Jackson said, ‘April and I-’  
‘Oh trust me I know all about you and April.’   
‘Wait you do?’ Jackson said, looking confused, ‘how do you-’  
‘Does it matter how I know?’   
‘Okay,’ he said, squaring up to her, ‘yeah I slept with April. Yeah, I’ve already gotten offers to go to other hospitals and I’m considering them but so are you. Do you think that either of those things is going to stop me being friends with you? What does any of that matter?’  
‘It matters Jackson! It matters to me!’ she said pushing him back from her but he grabbed her arms so she couldn’t leave.  
‘Why?’  
‘Because if you were going to sleep with anyone around here why couldn’t it be me?’ she said. It was too loud. It was too late. She clasped a hand to her mouth as if she could stop the words from reaching his ears. Jackson looked stunned, he moved back - away from her and perched on the side of one of the empty beds in the tunnel. Y/N sighed and followed suit deciding there was no point in running now it was out in the open. She could feel the prick of tears in her eyes as she did and the pit in her stomach grew bigger the longer Jackson stayed silent. 

‘Jackson-’  
‘Y/N,’ they said in unison before looking at each other and smiling, ‘why didn’t you say anything?’   
‘What was I supposed to say?’ she asked, ‘sorry I know you’re my best friend but I sorta got feelings for you and I want to tell you even though it might ruin our friendship. And it doesn’t matter anyway because you’re obviously going to take the head of plastics job at Tulane. And even if you don’t there’s no way I can compete with April’s doe-eyed naive pure girl angel.’  
‘I never said I was taking the job in Tulane.’   
‘Oh please,’ Y/N scoffed, ‘it’s head of plastics. Your dream job.’  
‘So, I would be happy as an attending here. Besides I’ve got stuff to keep me in Seattle.’   
‘Yeah, like what?’  
‘A job, good teachers, friends. Anyway, I thought you had an offer at Tulane too?’   
‘I did,’ she sighed, ‘but I don’t want to leave my mom. I’ve too much stuff here, I can’t leave it.’  
‘Maybe I have stuff I don’t want to leave too,’ Jackson said, reaching out to hold her hand. She looked up at him and smiled as he ran his thumb over the back of her hand.   
‘What about April?’ she said though it was barely more than a whisper.   
‘What about her? There’s no me and April. Not like there’s you and me.’  
‘What about Tulane? You’ll never be the head of plastics here. Mark’s not going anywhere and-’ she said starting to ramble.   
‘There’s plenty of hospitals Y/N. There’s always Pac North,’ he said making them both chuckle.  
‘Jackson-’ she whispered but he shushed her.   
‘We don’t have to decide right now,’ he said, ‘our boards haven’t even come in yet.’  
‘Right,’ she said, ‘we could be planning for no reason. We could be working at Starbucks this time next week.’  
‘I’d work anywhere with you,’ Jackson said.


End file.
